Seattle Museum To Run Marvel-Themed Exhibit In 2018 With Soundtrack By Hans Zimmer

The Seattle Museum of Pop Culture is making theirs Marvel beginning in April 2018, when they plan to unveil a new exhibit called Marvel: Universe of Super Heroes.

The exhibit will showcase over 300 Marvel artifacts, including “some of Marvel’s most iconic and sought-after pages, costumes and props, many of which have never-before been seen by the public,” according to a press release. It’s unclear if some of the never-before-seen artifacts include LGBTQ characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

1940s New York concept art

“Our show takes us from the origins of the Marvel Universe to the present, providing a chance to see some of the rarest and most precious objects to have survived from the past 80 years of pop culture history,” said curator Ben Saunders about the exhibition, a co-production of MoPOP, SC Exhibitions and Marvel Entertainment.

Tony Stark’s Lab concept art

The exhibit will highlight Marvel’s “influence on visual culture — including how it’s responded to historical events and addressed wider issues such as gender, race and mental illness.” For example, the exhibit could focus on the historic moment when Marvel hired its first Black woman writer… in 2016. It will also honor Jack Kirby and Stan Lee, and explore the narratives of chracters like Captain America, Spider-Man, Black Panther and Doctor Strange (notably absent from the press release: the Fantastic Four and the X-Men).

Seattle-themed Spider-Man poster by Michael Allred

“Marvel transformed the idea of the Super Hero in the 1960s — and beyond — by ratcheting up the visual spectacle, emotional dynamism and philosophical sophistication of the action-adventure comics genre,” said Brian Crosby, head of Marvel Themed Entertainment. “Marvel has always been a reflection of the world outside your own window and one of its most compelling messages has always been, that anyone — regardless of race, religion or gender — can be a Super Hero.”

Marvel Statues concept art

The exhibit will also feature its own soundtrack, composed by Lorne Balfe and, for some reason, Hans Zimmer, who famously composed the score of many of the films based on characters from rival DC Comics. What a coup!

Marvel: Universe of Super Heroes, according to the press release, has been curated by “an outstanding team that includes three scholars of comics — Benjamin Saunders, Matthew J. Smith and Randy Duncan, all of whom are university professors and experts in their field. MoPOP curators Brooks Peck and Jacob McMurray, as well as renowned comics writers and editors Ann Nocenti and Danny Fingeroth, have also contributed.”

Rare Artifacts concept art

“I don’t know why they didn’t ask me to be involved, but I have to admit it’s kind of insulting,” said Professor Thaddeus T. Puffinbottoms, a world-renowned comixologist who has consulted on hundreds of comic book articles for major comics websites like Bleeding Cool.

The exhibition, billed as the largest ever featured at the museum, opens on April 21st, 2018.

Former siterunner of TheOuthousers.com during its golden age, Jude Terror now delivers his modern take on entertainment journalism EXCLUSIVELY to the readers of Bleeding Cool, whether they like it or not.